St. Paul daily globe., 1887-03-27
DONNELLY'S CIPHER,
The Sage of Nininger Devoting Himself
Ardently to His Great
Work.
Shakespeare Proven Delusion and
Bacon's True Greatness Made
Apparent.
Reports That the Cipher Had Failed
to Work Declared to be With
out Foundation.
The Book to be Ready In July and
to be Sold Everywhere by Sub
scriptIon.

Hon. Ignatius Donnelly, since Legislative
cares are no longer weighing him down,
has devoted himself once again with his ac-
customed energy to his literary occupations,
and accordingly work ON the development
| OF the Baconian cipher theory is rapidly
progressing. Despite the fact that Mr..
Donnelly has been rather non-communica-
tive lately regar ding the status of his greai
work, GLOBE representative found him
| in an unusually chatty mood and in re.
| SpOnSe to question as to the progress
| being made he replied substantially as fol-
lows:
| Yes, sir, my work is progressing admira-
| bly,. Am / confident of the existence of
the cipher? Certainly. Why not? How
can one doubt the evidence of his senses?
If you will get the February (1S87 number
of the Shakesperiana published in PhiIa-
delphia), and look on page "a. you will lind
there sample Of the cipher, which shows
| its purely arithmetical character and its
wonderful accuracy. The whole OF the
cipher story is told in the same way. There
is no room for self-deception, no scope for
the imagination. A man might be as mad
! as March hare. but he cannot add up fifty
| so as to make it twenty. / am neither de-
ceiyed myself nor deceving others. | give
| the instance of the cipher copied into Shake
speriana simply as a specimen brick, to
| show how the grand and wonderful edifce
was constructed.
| While L am gratifed at the interest taken
! in my work, have not sought to force il
on the attention of the newspapers or the
| public. While can appreciate that in
tereSt. am not surprised at the incredulity
| OF the world. But let the doubling
Thomases get the copy of ''Shakesperiana'' I
rEafQ fn nd ct11dx tl,aE
! gwen, and there is not all intelligent man
who will say that the results there shown
could possibly have been the result of acci-
dent. And If not accidental, then there is
cipher narrative in the plays, and have
| found part of it; and is it unreasonable to
ask the public to believe that, having found
part of it. | may not. after six years of dill
| igent study, have found the whole of it?
Can the critics not be charitable enough to
say of me as was said of old of ''Hera-
clitus. the Obscure" by some one who had
read his book: What l can understand L
find to be reasonable, and what l cannot
understand l suppose to be reasonable"
AS L have already demonstrated and pub
llshed many curious arithmetical relation
ships in the text of the great folio of 1923,
which had escaped the notice of all the
commentators for 500 years. why may l
| not have gone deeper into the mine and
found much rich treasure yet to be re-
veaed?
What is the cause of the delay in pub
fishing? Simply because the work is vaster
than imagined. [ started out with an ex-
pectation of finding one or two cipher words
on each page, then l advanced to dozen
or two. then to score or two, then l
| thought the cipher words were one-fifth Of
the text. according to BacOn's cipher rule
| yTrh hnrn hn% %nlI
holdeth quntuple relation to the writing
| infolded." Now find that more than half
| the words are cipher words. and that MANY
words, as i'll the sample given in Shake
| speriana, are made to do double and
treble duty. In the plays of first and sec
| 0nd Henry ~, Bacon intended to leave
Tor the astoniShment of all time a piece of
work the most ingenious and marvellous
ever constructed by the wit of man. How
any human intellect could have achieved
| such work is matter of daily surprise to
ME. L could not believe it myself if my
arlthmetlcal rule applied with thu utmost
rigldlty and precision, did not prove it to me
every hour of the day. ImaglnationI
| There isn't any more Imagination in the
work l am doing than there is in tie labors
of tirst-elass bookkeeper in a mercantile
establishment, and my work viii prove it
| self just as his does, by the fact that every
other man. going over it carefully, must
| reach the same results.
What does the story tell? Well, that is
my secret for the present. What is the use
OF my discounting my book? l will only
say that the story is wonderful one about
the most wonderful creature that ever lived
on the earth Francis Bacon. instead OF
being the cold -booded philosopher he is
generally accounted. possessed most VOL
canic nature, of which the great dramas are
but the lurid reflection on a dark back
ground.
When will 1 publish? l could publish
now. and satisfy the world of the existence
OF the cipher. The question is when TO
shut down in the midst of most interest
ing narrative hope to get my book to
the printer by July.
How will 1 publishe Well, 1 have not
made up my mind. l incline TO the sub
scription system. The ordinary method
gives four times as much to the retail book
seller as to the author who produced it: an
excellent way to encourage bookstores and
discourage original thought.
How do my other books sell? Very we'll
indeed. Atlantis" has always sold we'll.
better than ''Ragnarok, but of late Rag
narok'' is taking fresh start and there is a
great demand for it. both here and in
England. l think it will eventually COM
mand greater sale than Atlantis a
good many nowadays, L think. buy the
books out of curiosity, to see if they can
find any traces of insanity in the works of
man who has made such a startling
claim about the Shakespeare plays. 1t is
not every man who can in this way turn
newspaper insnuatons against the integ-
rlty of his intellect into dollars and cents.
But as FalStatf says, "A wise man will
turn even diseases into commodities"
But be assured OF one thing: when nv
book Is published it will not only be the
great sensation of the century, but. by its
revelations, the greatest literary sensation
OF the ages. Its influences, in thous-
and directions. upon history. biography.
poetry and even religion. will be incalcula-
ble
Before put my work in the hands of the
printer propose to submit it to a few of
the leading scholars of America, and satisfy
them OF the reality of the discovery. and
procure their statement to that effect before
shall ask any man to buy copy of the
book.
Some witty gentleman has been kind
enough to call my work 1.-The Keeey-motor
OF literature" There is this difference: I
Shall not ask that worthy man. or any one
else. to invest dollar in it until it is dem.
onstrated that the motor will work So far
1t hasn't cost anybody, but myself, six
pence wnlie 1t has afforded a wonderful
amount OF amusement to the wtlings. For
SO much they should be grateful to me.
Bishop Again Successful.
CHICAGO, March 26.-For time traffic
on State street in the vicinity of the Palmer
mouse was stopped to- day by a crowd of
people who had patharad to ,,;+,o,- a.